The story begins in 1945 when RAF Wing Commander Montgomery 'Monty' Collins was posted to Berlin. Moved by the extent of destruction to Berlin he spent his spare time helping to re-build the city and predominantly the Berlin Zoo where Collins came to sponsor an Egret monkey called Max.
After the war he moved to the Black Forest and opened a country guesthouse; being British with a healthy interest in gin he was inspired by the abundance of Juniper, used in the production of Black Forest ham, and plethora of local herbs to develop his own unique recipe. This was only rediscovered at the end of the 20th century during renovation work of a country guesthouse, when a box containing a dusty bottle of gin, labelled by hand with a sketch of a monkey and the words 'Max the Monkey - Schwarzwald Dry Gin', and a letter detailing his recipe of 47 different botanicals, were found.
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